𝐂𝐎𝐋𝐁𝐄𝐑𝐓 𝐅𝐈𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐆~𝐅𝐈𝐍𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐈𝐀𝐋 𝐃𝐄𝐂𝐈𝐒𝐈𝐎𝐍 𝐎𝐑 𝐑𝐔𝐒𝐒𝐈𝐀𝐍 𝐒𝐓𝐘𝐋𝐄 𝐒𝐔𝐏𝐏𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐒𝐈𝐎𝐍????????

                               

Well, our unrefined President was certainly happy with the news of Late Show talk show host Stephen Colbert's firing: “I absolutely love that Colbert got fired. His talent was even less than his ratings. I hear Jimmy Kimmel is next. Has even less talent than Colbert! Greg Gutfeld is better than all of them combined, including the Moron on NBC who ruined the once great Tonight Show.”

Most any U.S. writer, blogger, columnist could have written those boorish words, probably capitalizing a bit more.  Trump is pretty transparent in that sense.

Of course, Vladimir Putin routinely crushes criticism, using more deadly means, like poisoning and "accidental" falls from fourth story windows.

CBS announced on Thursday that The Late Show with Stephen Colbert will end in May 2026, marking the end of an era for a franchise that has been a staple of late-night television since 1993. The network said the decision was purely financial, citing the changing media landscape and declining late-night ad revenues. Yet the timing of the cancellation, just three days after Colbert publicly criticized CBS’s parent company Paramount Global over its $16 million settlement with Donald Trump, has sparked widespread suspicion and debate.

In his monologue on Monday, Colbert addressed the settlement with visible frustration: “While I was on vacation, my parent corporation Paramount paid Donald Trump a $16 million settlement over his 60 Minutes lawsuit. As someone who has always been a proud employee of this network, I am offended, and I don't know if anything will ever repair my trust in this company. But just taking a stab at it, I'd say $16 million would help.”

Trump had accused 60 Minutes of editing an interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris in a misleading way, a claim the show denied.  Most of us who've rewatched the interview just don't see it, but CBS paid Trump anyway.

CBS executives, including Paramount co-CEO and CBS president George Cheeks, emphasized that the move was not related to the show’s performance or content. “This is purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night,” they said in a joint statement. “Stephen has taken CBS late night by storm... The show has been #1 in late night for nine straight seasons... We consider Stephen Colbert irreplaceable and will retire The Late Show franchise at that time.”

Still, the optics are difficult to ignore. Daniel Feinberg of The Hollywood Reporter captured this sentiment bluntly: “Official reasons and optics are two different things, and if the folks in charge at CBS didn’t know what the optics were, they wouldn’t have released a statement saying that what we think we can see with our eyes and infer with our common sense definitely aren’t the truth. The optics here may not have any connection to facts, but man the optics here suck, and they suck on a slew of levels that are ALL addressed in the statement as things that we’re not supposed to be thinking about but can’t help but think about.”

Kimmel responded on Instagram: “Love you Stephen.  F–k you and all your Sheldons CBS.”

Colbert confirmed the news during Thursday’s episode. “Before we start the show, I want to let you know something that I found out just last night. Next year will be our last season. The network will be ending The Late Show in May,” he told the audience as they booed. “Yeah, I share your feelings. It's not just the end of our show, but it's the end of The Late Show on CBS. I'm not being replaced, this is all just going away, and I do want to say that the folks at CBS have been great partners. I'm so grateful to the Tiffany Network for giving me this chair and this beautiful theater to call home. And of course I'm grateful to you, the audience, who have joined us every night.”

The Writers Guild of America has also expressed concern, calling for a closer look into whether political pressure influenced the decision. Colbert, a longtime critic of Trump, is not expected to change his commentary as he finishes out his contract through 2026.